Indigenous art & safety-enhancing solar lights transform urban park
Client
Burwood Council
Lighting Compliance
AS/NZS 1158.3.1.2020 PP4
Traditional Custodians
Wangal Clan of the Eora Nation
Project Overview
Burwood Council redeveloped a former landfill in the Sydney suburb of Croydon into a beautiful park now known as Wangal Park. The park is named after the Wangal people, a clan of the Dharug Aboriginal nation, the traditional custodians of the land where the park sits.
The 4.2 hectare park serves as an area of scenery and recreation against the backdrop of a rapidly-growing urban area, featuring electric BBQ facilities, picnic areas, playgrounds, outdoor gyms, half basketball court and a skate park.
When the night falls, park safety concerns call
Wangal Park has two entry gates that close each night. As the park wasn’t anticipated for use at night, no solar park lighting was installed. Although this initially made logistical sense, leaving a large urban area totally unlit elicited security concerns – a main one being ‘fence-hoppers’.
As a result, residents and law enforcement requested illumination around the park to maintain after hours security and a sense of safety, which was also important due to the park’s proximity to a school.
A novel and attractive solution for park lighting and methane venting
Due to Wangal’s Park previous life as a tip site, the park’s soil contains methane, which needs to be safely released. Leadsun’s engineers worked closely with the Burwood Council and their engineering consultants to design poles that would structurally support SMART solar park lighting and safely vent the methane.
Burwood Council was able to achieve both objectives by installing six-metre-high specially engineered methane release flues with gas-releasing fans. The gas flues also cleverly accommodate Leadsun’s SMART solar lighting, thereby providing Wangal Park with dual purpose poles strategically positioned around the park’s pathways.
Innovative poles adorned with Indigenous art
The custom poles ended up with a diameter of 300mm, which led to concern that they would detract from the natural scenery of Wangal Park. Burwood Council proactively circumvented the potential problem by giving local Indigenous artists the opportunity to showcase artwork inspired by the six Aboriginal seasons, thus using the large diameter of the poles to create an attraction instead of an eyesore. Indigenous art can also be found on the footpaths and at the entry gates of Wangal Park, thus highlighting the park’s presence on Aboriginal land. Read more about the artwork here.
Thanks to Burwood Council’s ingenuity and creative problem solving, Leadsun’s installation at Wangal Park has received widespread praise amongst the local community and has drastically improved the appeal and popularity of the park.
Leadsun Products Used
- P Category lighting compliance – AS1158.3.1.2020 PP4
- Number of lights – 11
- Solar module series – AE6
- Solar size – 130W
- LED output programming – 10W, 100% illumination dusk – 8pm
- Pole footing type – Ragbolt/cage
- Pole type – Fixed special design
- Additional solutions – EDGE wireless lighting controls
Leadsun Applications
Acknowledgement of Country
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which this project was undertaken, the Wangal Clan of the Eora Nation. We recognize their continuing connection to land, waters and culture and we pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.
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